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A disabled villain played by a disabled actor on Broadway.
Richard III, with Disabled Actor as Star, Begins July 11 (BroadwayWorld.com)
Henry Holden is an actor you uses crutches for his mobility. Richard III was physically deformed, and it the 1400's that was enough to mark him as being evil.
Jodie and I were both irritated when we found out that Laura Innes, who plays the part of a doctor who uses crutches, really is not disabled. She does not use crutches in real life. We always felt that there had to be actors out there who were truly disabled who could play the part of a disabled doctor without pretending to be disabled.
Henry Holden is part of a group called DIME, Disability in Media Everywhere, is a group that promotes the presence of the disabled in mass media.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
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I have mixed feelings about Laura Innes' character on ER. If an actor is hired for a role, given some leeway to make their own choices about details of the character's appearance (I don't know if that was the case for Innes), and they choose to include a mobility impairment in their character's portrayal -- is that always wrong? I certainly want disabled actors given priority in hiring for the portrayal of disabled characters, and I want disability to be an optional aspect of the "color" of any character so that able-bodiedness isn't a default requirement for roles. But if the disability is just a detail of the character, not symbolic or a major plot point, then is it wrong for a nondisabled actor to portray disability? If there was a strict policy that disabled roles were only played by disabled actors, ever, who would determine when someone aged enough, for example, to be considered mobility impaired?
Cool about Holden. I have issues with Shakespeare's Richard III as a disabled character, but if it's to be played, having a disabled actor play such a historic role changes the meaning of it, I think.
Representation is tricky business, isn't it?
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